We have a new way to access books on the island – a charming Little Free Library has appeared in the community garden, which makes perfect sense to me, as I think community gardens have a lot in common with community libraries, including seed libraries, providing a place to read and ponder, and a spaces to feed our body and soul. This one came about through the love of friends of Dan and Alisa Barton. Alisa shares her story here:

Thanks for noticing our special, whimsical Little Free Library, which came into being back in June of 2019 but finally found a home in June of 2026, thanks to the board of the community garden.

The provenance of the library is a story of true friendship. It was designed and built as a surprise – to both Dan and me – for my birthday. It was the brainchild of our close friend, Nancy Langmeyer, who regularly visits us here on the island from Newburyport, MA. She secretly organized a design-build team of friends: (then) islanders Judy Paolini and Jim Thibault and Hope and Dave Madsen, as well as frequent island visitors Carolyn and Jim Wagner.

Judy had found a photo of a playful Little Free Library and this inspired the design. She says the colors of the box are “Alisa colors”. Afterwards, she realized that the door of the library box in the photo wasn’t really angled, it just appeared to be, given the perspective of the photo. We, however, love the fun and unique door that they installed in our box.

Placing the box proved tricky. Our property is on the East end of the island in one of the little off-road neighborhoods and it doesn’t have any road frontage. We also love both Brenda’s box, which was the first on the island, and the library, and didn’t want to take away from either of them. Last year we had the brainstorm that placing the box at the community garden was a central location that could be easily accessed by not only islanders but also visitors. We are very grateful that the board of the garden was kind enough to approve its placement there.

Nancy registered the box with the Little Free Library association and asked us how we wanted to dedicate the box. We chose to honor both our son Christopher and our island community. Christopher, who passed away in 2015, came to the island his whole life and loved it deeply. It is one of the places we feel his spirit strongly. In addition to the island, Chris had a passion for knowledge and learning and loved to read. We are happy to be able to commemorate both of these things he loved through the Little Free Library.